Lewis & Clark music department benefits from donor support

March 01, 2011

Nora Beck, James W. Rogers professor of music and department chair

Jeffrey Leonard, visiting instructor in music

Sharon Bosserman-Benson, director of planned giving

Dozens of alumni and friends support the music program each year with their gifts designated to the department. From underwriting the jazz band, to the George V. Bishop Opera Workshop, to helping fund the choir tour, donors play an integral role in the success of the music faculty and students. Listed here is a sampling of recent, significant gifts to support music at Lewis & Clark.

The Cynthia Lois Brown Scholarship is a new award for entering or currently enrolled students who have an interest in learning to play the organ. The fund is made possible by a $240,000 bequest received in 2009 from the estate of Cynthia Lois Brown, a student and friend of Lee Garrett, Lewis & Clark professor emeritus of music and curator of organs. Described by friends as a “life-long learner” and a “very generous person,” Cynthia was an organist at the local church near her home in Colton, Oregon.

The Dr. Paul Bellam Memorial Scholarship is a new, permanently endowed student scholarship, merit or need based, for the concertmaster or mistress position (violin) of the Lewis & Clark Orchestra. Mariel Bailey ’74, and her husband, Bruce, both musicians in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, established the scholarship to honor Mariel’s Lewis & Clark music instructor, the late Dr. Bellam. The fund will be fully endowed in the spring of 2011 at the $50,000 level.

David Radmore ’54, ’59, and his wife, Audrey, recently established a charitable gift annuity with Lewis & Clark. In this arrangement, the Radmores receive a fixed income from the annuity, and, when they are gone, the College will receive the gift remainder. David has specified the proceeds, estimated to be in the $100,000 range, benefit the music department in honor of his favorite music professor, Dr. John Richards.

The Diane Gregg Memorial Pavilion opens this spring. The Pavilion construction was made possible by a $1.5 million bequest from the Glenn Gregg ’55 estate. The new facility will be used for music performance, worship and theatre, as well as various student, faculty and community gatherings.

Chris Roberts ’81 continues to fund the electronic music program to the tune of $5,000 per year. Through his consistent gifts over the past decade, Roberts has greatly aided the program’s evolution by subsidizing the acquisition of equipment and software for the EMS (electronic music studio).

Submitted by Nora Beck, James W. Rogers professor of music and department chair, Jeffrey Leonard, visiting instructor in music, and Sharon Bosserman-Benson, director of planned giving.